“wearable tech”: Apple’s design chief brags about the iWatch

The New York Times‘ Nick Bilton is out with a column on how ugly smartwatches are and uncovered a rare product tease from Apple‘s lead designer, Jony Ive.

Bilton spoke to an Apple designer who works with Ive. According to this secondhand account, Ive has strong feelings that Apple‘s coming wearable device will rival Swiss watch designs.

Here’s the nugget from Bilton’s column:

According to a designer who works at Apple, Jonathan Ive, Apple’s design chief, in bragging about how cool he thought the iWatch was shaping up to be, gleefully said Switzerland is in trouble — though he chose a much bolder term for ‘trouble’ to express how he thought the watchmaking nation might be in a tough predicament when Apple’s watch comes out.

You can probably guess what word Ive really used instead of “trouble.”

Apple is expected to unveil the next iPhone and the new wearable at a press event on Tuesday. We’ll have to wait until then to see if the so-called iWatch will become the bane of Switzerland’s existence. But before the Public Relations event set on Tuesday, Apple’s design department should know that, even if an iWatch can and will most likely out sell all Swiss watch manufactures combined, but just as the iPhone is for a niche market, so are Swiss watches. Most importantly, Swiss watchmakers are never going to come out with a timepiece that will be obsolete in three years.